The scanning process

The digitisation of The Press will be done via microfilm provided by Christchurch City Libraries and sent to Delhi, India, for scanning.

Considerable effort was put into identifying microfilm without ink spots or scratches to ensure accuracy of the character recognition.

Once scanned, and the location of specific letters and words was mapped, it took weeks, even months, to load and check the information before it was released to the public on Papers Past.

Digitisation adviser Melanie Lovell-Smith said it was hoped The Press editions from 1946 to 1961 would be digitised by late November, with editions up to 1995 made available to the public in 2022.

She said it would be ‘‘an amazing resource for schools’’ as they rolled out the Aotearoa NZ histories curriculum.